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Nikola was born in 1508 as the son of Nikola III Zrinski and Jelena Karlović (sister of future Croatian ban Ivan Karlović) He distinguished himself at the siege of Vienna in 1529, and in 1542 saved the imperial army from defeat before Pest by intervening with 400 Croats, for which service he was appointed ban of Croatia. In 1542 he routed an Ottoman force at the Battle of Somlyo.

In 1543 he married Catherine (Katarina) Frankopan, a sister of Count Stjepan Frankopan Ozaljski ("Stephen Frankopan of Ozalj" in English), who placed the whole of her vast estates at his disposal. She bore him many children, among which was his successor Juraj IV Zrinski. The king Ferdinand I gave him large possessions in Hungary and Croatia, and henceforth the Zrinskis–Zrínyis became as much Magyar as Croatian magnates.

As a compensation for his battles with the Ottomans, he was granted the whole area of Međimurje on 12 March 1546 from King Ferdinand, hence the centre of the Zrinski family has moved from Zrin to the city of Čakovec, where he rearranged the existing castle.[5][6]

In 1556 Zrinski won a series of victories over the Ottomans, culminating in the battle of Babócsa and thus preventing the fall of Szigetvár.[5] In 1563, on the coronation of the Emperor Maximilian as king of Hungary, Zrinski attended the ceremony at the head of 3000 Croatian and Magyar mounted noblemen, in the vain hope of obtaining the dignity of palatine, vacant by the death of Tamás Nádasdy. Shortly after marrying (in 1564) his second wife, Eva of Rožmberk (Rosenberg), a great Bohemian heiress, he hastened southwards to defend the frontier, and defeated the Ottomans at Szeged.

In 1566, from August 5 to September 7, his small force (2,300 soldiers) heroically defended the little fortress of Szigetvár against the whole Ottoman host (102,000 soldiers), led by Suleiman the Magnificent in person. The Siege of Szigetvár ended with Zrinski perishing with every member of the garrison in a last desperate sortie.[7]Suleiman the Magnificent had died by celebral hemorrhage 1 day before Ottoman won the war.[8]

He was the great-grandfather of Croatian Ban (Viceroy) and Croatian/Hungarian poet Nikola Zrinski, as well as his younger brother Petar Zrinski. The former wrote the Hungarianepic poem, the Peril of Sziget, of which Zrinski is the hero, which has assured Zrinski's place in Hungarian culture. The epic remains in print today and is considered one of the landmarks of Hungarian literature.[10] Nikola Šubić Zrinski is honoured both in Croatia and in Hungary as a national hero. A park in the Croatian capital Zagreb is named Trg Nikole Šubića Zrinskog after him.[11] Zrinski's last battle was made the subject of a tragedy, Zrinyi: Ein Trauerspiel, by Theodor Körner.[12] The Order of Nikola Šubić Zrinski is one of the highest Croatian national decorations.

Treaty of peace with Germany: Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations... ...signed at Versailles on June 28, 1919, and submitted to the Senate on July 10, 1919 - "the Slavs rescued them from a strangle-hold, namely, Nicholas Zrinsky and John Sobieski. one a Croatian and the other a Pole."